


An Unlikely Alliance

by frubeto



Series: 101 Ways To Bring Back Hugh Culber [4]
Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: M/M, culmets was a thing in the mirrorverse too because i said so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 22:19:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16104974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frubeto/pseuds/frubeto
Summary: The last thing Paul expected to wake up to in the middle of the night was his dead partner holding a knife to his throat.





	An Unlikely Alliance

**Author's Note:**

> alrighty so headcanon: the mirrorverse had culmets and when mirror!Paul died he went back into the network with our Hugh (because why not, it's convenient for this story)

 

 

The last thing Paul expected to wake up to in the middle of the night was his dead partner holding a knife to his throat.

 

“Are you gonna scream when I let go?”

 

“...I could scream right now.”

 

“For the split second it takes me to slice your windpipe in half, sure.”

 

He pressed the knife down harder and Paul decided it might actually be wisest to shut up. Instead he took in the man on top of him: He had Hugh’s face, definitely, but staring down at him from those eyes was not Hugh. Not _his_ Hugh, at least. The red uniform and the insignia on his chest confirmed his suspicions about where this man came from. Shit.

 

The other Hugh seemed convinced he wasn’t going to put up a fight and leaned back, still pinning him down with his legs, but slowly taking the knife away and sliding it back into it’s sheath.

 

“Good. I need your help.”

 

 

*

 

 

“Remind me again why I’m doing this?”

 

“Because you love him.”

 

Hugh sat on the bed in Starfleet pajamas, looking way too familiar for Paul’s taste.

 

“Urgh.”

 

Throwing his PADD onto the couch he fully entered their quarters and started to pull off his boots.

 

“Yeah, I know, I know, and it’s gonna make things so much easier once we actually have them back but what about right now?”

 

He picked up the boots and put them aside out of habit because Hugh was there, and his brain apparently didn’t care if it was the right one.

 

“You know as well as he does that I’m a terrible liar and I just spent my entire day trying to explain to authorities just why you’re suddenly back here, alive and all. What if it doesn’t work out?”

 

His jacket was next, and having caught himself with the boots he made a mental note to throw it over a chair out of spite.

 

“Now that we know about your universe they’re going to be extra careful. They’ll want to do tests and I can only keep them away from you for so long. You’re probably expecting me to magically make you pass them, and-”

 

He really looked at Hugh for the first time and noticed he wasn’t even listening, focused on a PADD in his lap.

 

“Hey! What are you doing?”

 

He grabbed the PADD from him and turned it around to see what had kept Hugh’s attention, and froze when he did. It was an old photo of them, not long after the beginning of their relationship, when everything was still very _new_. Straal had took it, the first time Hugh had visited them in their lab, and he’d been constantly nagging him about being “distracted” and “making out in front of the kids” but they couldn’t have cared less. And so Straal, with every intention of holding it over his head, had captured them dancing underneath the mushrooms. It was one of the few photos of himself that he actually liked, and Paul was losing himself in the melancholy of his memories when Hugh spoke again.

 

“You look happy.”

 

“We were.”

 

“Tell me about him.”

 

Paul put the PADD down to frown at him.

 

“I need to be able to play him convincingly,” Hugh shrugged, and since he couldn’t argue with that, Paul rolled his eyes and leaned back against the table defeatedly.

 

“He’s… perfect,” he began, and then told the story behind the photo.

 

Hugh listened patiently to all the great qualities of his counterpart, but far more interesting and insightful to him was the look in Paul’s eyes.

 

“You really love him.”

 

“Of course I do,” he replied, almost affronted that there was any question about it, and Hugh’s features softened into a small smile at how adorable this Paul could be.

 

“I thought you two were-”

 

Paul waved his hand to indicate _something_ , and Hugh grimaced.

 

“Paul is brilliant. Strong. Terrifying. In all the right ways. But he’s...”

 

He sighed and shook his head.

 

“It’s complicated.”

 

Paul gave a sympathetic twitch of his mouth.

 

“We can be difficult.”

 

Hugh only huffed in agreement.

 

“And yet you’re here to get him back.”

 

 

*

 

 

When Paul woke up in the middle of the night again, his brain needed a minute until it reminded him of recent events. Then it sent a message to his heart and he was suddenly _very awake_ , knowing there was a terran in close proximity.

A thought quickly passed through the back of his head about how Burnham had done it, in the lioness’s den, pretending she was one of them, before he sat up to look at his guest – and sure enough found the disruption of his sleep. Hugh was shifting around uncomfortably on the couch, and it took him a while to place the signs. _His_ Hugh wasn’t prone to nightmares, with only very infrequent exceptions, but he guessed this one had gone through enough to justify them.

 

“Hugh?”

 

There was no reply, of course. Only more distressed sounds that involuntarily escaped the suffering form across the room.

Paul couldn’t stand it any longer.

He got up and walked over, carefully observing the expression on Hugh’s face. It shifted somewhere around pain and fear and combined with the occasional words he could make out, it made him wonder what his partner’s fate had looked like in the other universe.

 

“Hugh!”

 

He crouched down to put a hand on his shoulder.

 

“Hey, wake up.”

 

When that didn’t work he shook him slightly, more out of habit than any common sense, and Hugh finally stilled. Then he moved.

 

Next thing Paul knew he was being pressed face down to the floor, a knee in his back and right arm bent painfully behind him. It knocked the air out of his lungs and he already felt the panic flaring up in his gut and forcing its way through his body before Hugh finally realized who he was and loosened his grip.

Paul sucked in a breath.

Above him, Hugh moved, and brought one hand down next to his face.

 

“Don’t. Do that again,” he barked, still audibly shaken.

 

“Got it,” Paul croaked.

 

 

*

 

 

“Come on, I need to pee, _right now_.”

 

“Well,” Hugh’s voice came muffled from inside, “door’s unlocked. Nothing either of us hasn’t seen before.”

 

“That’s not the _same_ ,” Paul argued, but nonetheless palmed the door open, hurrying to the toilet straight away.

 

Behind him, the sound of the shower stopped, and by the time he was finished and back at the sink, Hugh stepped out of the cubicle and into the view of the mirror.

Paul gasped, turning towards him.

 

“What happened?”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

Instinctively, he reached out to touch one of the many scars covering Hugh’s torso, but his wrist was caught in an iron grip before he’d even seen the movement. Paul got the message and backed off.

 

“Life,” Hugh answered as if nothing had happened. “Though, to be fair, most of that is thanks to Paul’s little _pet_. The thing almost fucking mauled me to death.”

 

Paul didn’t quite understand at first, until he inspected the scars further, considering them as a whole, and realized they looked vaguely familiar.

 

“He had a tardigrade?! Why? His work didn’t-”

 

“That was… before the Charon,” Hugh sighed, slightly strained. “He didn’t actually want to invent an energy source that’s single-handedly destroying the multiverse, you know? But once the powers that be saw the potential in his research he had little choice in the matter.”

 

Paul softly hm-ed in response. It was nice, in a way, to see this other version of Hugh so protective of his own counterpart. Reassuring, that their bond was apparently strong enough to cross universes, even into this twisted one. No wonder that the rest of the story would have similarities as well.

 

“Whatever he was doing with it though, it didn’t like it. Went on a rampage and killed everyone in it’s way.”

 

Hugh shrugged, turning towards the sink and giving Paul a good view of his back – scarred, maybe even worse so than his chest. Paul audibly hissed in sympathy and couldn’t stop himself from putting a hand to the naked and thankfully uninjured shoulder in front of him. The thought that this could well have happened to his Hugh, too…

 

“It’s strange to see you care.”

 

His head snapped up to look at Hugh through the mirror.

 

“He… didn’t?!”

 

“Not as openly as you are now. And you don’t even know me.”

 

Paul carefully schooled his face into a more neutral expression after having been caught with so much emotion in it and tried to steer the conversation away from him.

 

“What happened to the tardigrade?”

 

“I killed it. What happened to yours?”

 

“We set it free,” Paul replied mindlessly, still processing what Hugh had just said. What kind of man was he, really, and how much did he know about this universe? How much had the other Paul told him? How much had _he_ known?

But then Hugh straightened up and watched him with his usual intensity that felt oddly cold and piercing now instead of warm and loving, and simply waited for Paul to continue, as if he already knew that it hadn’t been the whole story and Paul could only curse him for seeing right through him in every universe.

  
“...after my work almost killed it.”

 

 

*

 

 

“Who knows?”

 

“What?”

 

Paul looked up from where he was working on the desk and saw Hugh standing in the entrance to their quarters, the door barely shut behind him. He was pissed, Paul could tell, and wasn’t that a worst-case scenario.

 

“Michael Burnham just approached me with plans to clear the lab.”

 

He held up the offending PADDs.

 

“Who else knows?” he repeated, his voice calm and tight, the way Paul only rarely heard, but could easily identify as _I’m three seconds away from murdering you_.

He got up as soon as Hugh started moving towards him.

 

“Okay, relax, alright? Wh-”

 

“I said,” he interrupted, dropping the PADDs from full height onto the coffee table with seemingly no care that it was _glass_. “Who else knows?”

 

Paul cringed, but forced himself to get closer, hoping he wouldn’t regret it.

 

“I told Burnham and Tilly. She was already suspecting you-”

 

“Tilly?!” Hugh took a forceful step forward that had Paul stumbling back on instinct. “You mean you told Sylvia Tilly, the _Slayer of Sorna Prime_ , the _Witch of Wurna Minor_ what we’re trying to keep from _everyone_ on this ship?!”

 

Paul rolled his eyes.

 

“No. I told Ensign Sylvia Tilly, who apologized to a chair last week after she tripped over it.”

 

There was a second of silence while Hugh just stared at him, probably wondering if he was kidding, before he grabbed his collar and threw him against the nearest wall. He was saying something, but Paul missed it over the blood rushing in his ears. This physical aggression wasn’t something he could ever get used to.

 

“Wow. Look, they’re brilliant, and they’re willing to help, and I can’t do it without them.”

 

Hugh got closer, towering over him even though they were the same height, using all that muscle and reputation to his advantage, and right now Paul couldn’t find anything familiar about this man that was a perfect copy of his partner.

 

“You went _behind my back_. I decide _who_ gets to know _what_ , and _I decide_ what you do or _don’t do_.”

 

Despite the tight hold, Paul managed to shake his head.

 

“I’m not you’re _slave_ ,” he spat, glad that his voice was steady given the terror in his veins. “My universe, my rules. You want this to work – you need to stop acting like a terran.”

 

Hugh’s grip was starting to cut off his air, but he wasn’t going to give in now.

 

“What are you gonna do, kill me? Go ahead. Kill me and all this blows up in your face. I’m the only one who’s able to bring him back, I’m the one protecting you. Without me, you’re done. Don’t think for one second that there’ll be any doubt as to what happened. And I’m sure Tilly would gladly get her Captain Killy back on if she finds out.”

 

Hugh scoffed but let go.

He didn’t step back though, so Paul found himself almost leaning against him as he tried to catch his breath as dignified as possible.

 

“Maybe you’re not so different after all,” Hugh said, and the slight admiration in his tone made Paul recoil.

 

“So do you regularly threaten to kill each other? Cute.”

 

“His sole survival skill is making himself indispensable,” he explained. “If it weren’t for that brain of his, he wouldn’t survive a day in the Empire.”

 

“You say that as if it’s a bad thing.”

 

“Look where it got him.”

 

“Well, no amount of hand-to-hand-combat could have saved him from that explosion.”

 

“...yeah,” Hugh said, face hard as stone, and Paul realized too late that it was the wrong thing to say.

 

 

*

 

 

“I don’t get how you can call this a uniform. It offers no protection whatsoever.”

 

Hugh pulled on the hem of it and tried to get comfortable. He had been around the ship in it a few times, but he still felt naked. If someone were to attack him, he’d be screwed. Of course none of these Federation officers were any match for him, but his fighting style did rely on a solid chestplate instead of a few millimeters of fabric. And it was _white_ of all things, unnecessarily drawing attention to himself. He hated it.

 

“Rest assured that there is no one out to kill you in these corridors,” Paul said sarcastically, not caring much about his unease.

 

Maybe the real reason for it was the destination of their walk: the lab, where they were to meet Tilly and Burnham. Hugh couldn’t bring himself to believe they were as harmless as Paul described.

At least they agreed to do this during gamma shift, so he didn’t have to worry about those torturing lights they insisted on illuminating every corner of the ship with, or any spying eyes. He’d hoped so, at least, only essential personnel should be around at this time of day, but he was proven wrong as they turned a corner and passed a young couple. The two women stood in a doorway, probably parting for the night, and only quickly acknowledged them. Hugh recognized both, one from his investigation of the Charon and the other – without those impressive implants – as commander of the Shenzhou. But what was shocking about it was how intimately they were kissing goodbye. It would be unthinkable in his universe. Sex, yes, but those two clearly loved each other and had absolutely no concerns about showing it.

 

Once they were out of earshot, Hugh cleared his throat.

 

“How much… physical contact do we… engage in?”

 

Paul snorted.

 

“Don’t worry, we’re not exactly snogging at every corner. But… we’re close.”

 

He threw a sideways glance at Hugh.

 

“I’m guessing public display of affection isn’t in the terran book?”

 

“It is. Right under ‘ _Things That Will Get You Killed_ ’. Or one you care for.”

 

Paul sighed and stopped, turning so that he was in front of Hugh and took his arms. He immediately tensed.

 

“Alright. You’ll have to change that.”

 

There were distant footsteps and Hugh was sure Paul heard them too, and yet he stepped even closer and raised one hand to his cheek in a way that had him fighting hard against a well-trained reflex. Not many people could get away with reaching for the general area of his throat and not be killed on the spot. But luckily for Paul, he had a significant resemblance to someone who did.

 

The other hand went to his chest and when Paul spoke again, he had lowered his voice.

 

“Because if he were actually here, I wouldn’t let go of him.”

 

Whoever it was, striding around the corridors, they were now definitely coming their way, and Paul reacted by putting on his best lovesick look.

 

The little shit.

 

It was against all of his instincts, but he liked to call himself adaptable, so Hugh forcibly relaxed his muscles even as his pulse went up under Paul’s fingers. However he continued to stare him down for this until the very last moment before their mystery visitor arrived and then softened his features.

 

“Commander,” Paul greeted as Saru passed them.

 

The Kelpian nodded once in return and then continued on down the corridor. They waited until he disappeared behind a corner and Hugh swore he saw him reach for his ganglia right before he did. God, it would be so much easier if he had a way to get rid of him before he became a problem.

He sighed and focused back on Paul, almost disappointed when the loving look had been wiped off his face completely and he stepped back.

 

“Let’s go.”

 

 

They made it to the lab without further incidents, and Burnham and Tilly were already waiting for them. Hugh tried to keep Paul between himself and Tilly as he quickly explained their plan and handed out PADDs with his research. She scrolled through it, probably not noticing him eyeing her warily.

 

“So you think the other Stamets is in the network again, with our Culber?”

 

“From what I understand, yes.”

 

She looked up.

 

“And now you’re both here to save each other, that’s so cute.”

 

Paul smiled to himself, imagining Hugh’s reaction to being called _cute_.

 

“I already went over it, it only makes sense. The other me had a connection to the network, similar to mine, and with the amount of spores when the Charon-”

 

He trailed off, looking for the right words.

 

“-when you killed him,” Hugh finished for him, at the same time that Tilly said,

 

“-when we blew it up,” her eyes wide and guilt clear on her face even though they didn’t have any other choice to save the multiverse. And Paul had been responsible for that in the first place.

 

Hugh shook his head in disbelief.

 

“What.”

 

“Nothing. I just never thought I’d see the day that Tilly showed sympathy towards me.”

 

“You’re scared of her,” she noted, and he wasn’t sure if he should be affronted.

 

“The last time I met your counterpart she promised a slow and painful death if she ever saw me again,” he explained instead. “And she’s not known for making empty threats.”

 

“Oh.”

 

She didn’t sound surprised, and of course she must have played the captain convincingly enough, so she knew what she was capable of, but something in her voice was almost… embarrassment? For someone who was essentially herself? Hugh began to understand why Paul had laughed at the idea of Tilly being as dangerous as he thought, but he had known the power and the wrath of Captain Killy, and he’d rather not make an enemy of this one as well.

 

The room fell into silence while everyone went through the data, trying to figure out the scientific part, and Hugh sat down on a chair, pretendedly bored. It was almost half an hour of reading and comparing with their own findings until Burnham put her PADD down.

 

“I am unsure whether our resources will suffice for this.”

 

“That’s what I thought as well,” Tilly piped up. “To generate that field he’s talking of would take five times the amount of-”

 

“Well, if you can’t do it here,” Hugh interrupted, having expected these kind of doubts and addressed Paul, “there’s always the option of jumping over with me and turn the tables. I’d love to see you try not to get killed in the first 40 minutes. Although,” he added as a afterthought, “getting you into a proper uniform would at least improve the aesthetic.”

 

For a moment, Paul considered it.

 

But knowing that universe’s Paul and the evil-mastermind-lair he’d probably own, he decided he’d pass.

 

“Yeah, no, really not a fan of bloodstains and fingerless gloves as a fashion statement.”

 

Hugh laughed.

  
“He does love those,” he said, and Paul knew better than to ask him to specify.

 

Instead he began to plan out their new project and assigned tasks to everyone, and Burnham and Tilly got to work immediately, while Hugh stayed silent, seemingly lost in thought.

 

“Tell me about him,” Paul asked softly, and low enough that no one else could hear.

 

“Huh?”

 

“Tell me about him,” he repeated.

 

“...you met him.”

 

“I was kind of distracted.”

 

The computer dinged with an alert and Paul grabbed his PADD and walked over to another console while continuing,

 

“I’m going to bring him back, too, I might as well know something about him.”

 

“He’s an asshole.”

 

“I gathered that much,” Paul scoffed.

 

“Incredibly good fuck, though.”

 

Paul froze, took a sharp breath, and straightened up, looking over if the other two had heard. If they had, they were polite enough to pretend otherwise, and he let his gaze wander back to the screen. He couldn’t help but feel this was payback and Hugh was trying to embarrass him, so he did the only sensible thing and ignored him. It didn’t take long until he could, with great satisfaction, hear the sigh as Hugh gave in.

 

“He’s _you_ ,” he said, “but better.”

 

Then there was a pause, and Paul watched him get up.

 

“You’re only a watered-down version of what he is,” he continued. “He keeps me on my toes and makes me feel protected. He’s all sharp edges and they fit perfectly with mine. But sometimes, under my touch, he turns-” Hugh approached him and ran a hand through his hair in a gesture so familiar he couldn’t help but lean into it, “- _soft_. And I like the soft. But you...” He let the hand fall down to his neck, “You’re nothing but. You’re just a marshmallow in the fire. Slightly crisp on the outside, and-” a dramatic huff, “-mostly goo.”

 

Paul smirked,

 

“You really do love him, huh?”

 

Hugh considered him for a long moment, then carefully echoed,

 

“Of course I do.”

 

 

*

 

 

Hugh tentatively put an arm around Paul’s middle, still not fully confident he was always judging this _public display of affection_ thing correctly, but Paul smiled encouragingly and leaned into the touch. There were only Tilly and Burnham at their table, but enough people in the room were throwing glances, and to mess everything up now would be more than annoying. Tomorrow was the big day, then everything would be back to normal, he’d be gone again, replaced by the version of him that belonged here, and none of these people would be the wiser. He could only hope that his own return home with Paul would go as smoothly.

 

By the end of the night, Paul was leaning fully against him, not least because he had turned in his direction and slung both arms around him, weirdly enough enjoying the contact. Paul hadn’t moved in a while, so Hugh thought he might have fallen asleep, but when he shifted forward to check, he was surprised to find him _crying_.

Surprised, and slightly out of his depth, so his instincts took over as he put one hand up to stroke Paul’s hair and effectively shield him from view.

 

“Did I… do something wrong?” he whispered, and shot Burnham a murderous glare when she tried to return to the table.

 

“No. You’re good at this,” Paul answered after a beat, turning his face further into Hugh’s chest. He thought he’d leave it at that, but Paul only took a deep breath and shifted his shoulders while another bout of tears rolled silently down his cheeks.

 

“Every now and then there’s a second where I could actually believe I had him back.”

 

Hugh sighed. For him, having this Paul around was more of a motivation than a burden, though of course he was in an unfamiliar environment living a life that wasn’t his, while Paul had to pretend everything was as it always had been. He could understand the pain.

 

Not knowing how to react, whether to apologize or thank him, he settled on,

 

“You will.”

 

And Paul shook his head faintly.

 

“You can’t know that.”

 

It was true, there was a lot that could go wrong, if their calculations were only a little off, or the connection destabilized prematurely, they could still never see them again. But-

 

“If I know one thing about you, no matter what universe, it’s that you can do anything, once you set your mind to it.”

 

Hugh tightened his hold a little and kissed the top of Paul’s head.

 

“That’s why I’m here.”

 

“...Thank you.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I had so many ideas for this but unfortunately most of them were conflicting, so you're left with what I could fit into one story. ~~There was an earlier version where they fucked.~~
> 
> [talk to me](http://www.frubeto.tumblr.com) about detmer/owosekun i wanna create some CONTENT but i have zero inspiration like, do they even have a personality yet?


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